Hud Tweak Ideas

I had a few small things in mind for the HUD and UI so I'll just combine it all into one post!

If services and scenarios in some way indicated what stations the train would stop at, that would help a lot. Because sometimes you want a stopping service but it turns out it was nonstop.

The brake gauges are not rotated to quite the same angle, so it's hard to compare between the two sets. Would be much nicer if they were matching.

The map icon for locos like a class 66 shows it with just 1 cab, when a 66 has 2 cabs as we all know.

Right now, all the same loading screens are used regardless of which route is being loaded. It would make more sense to have a different slideshow for each route, showing just that route’s loading screens.

The 166 is not diesel electric, so it has no ammeter, but I could see a tachometer being an appropriate replacement in the same area of the HUD, as the RPM of a diesel hydraulic is good information to have.

The ammeters on the 66 and 43 HUDs include a yellow section as if for dynamic brakes, but neither can ever produce negative amps, so the ammeter is a bit bigger than it needs to be.

The collectibles section of the profile is going to get very cluttered very quickly. I think instead of the current setup, it should just show the routes, then you see the collectibles after selecting a route. (Maybe just integrate a collectibles list into the route section of the profile, as it already has the # of collectibles, just not the types.)

Ooh, and a feature that actually got added to the game:
The throttle indicator on the HUD could really benefit from showing dynamic brake position, or in the case of the 166 (and other combined throttle/brake locomotives), brake position as well as throttle. (After all, you can't have the dynamic brakes and the throttle on at the same time, so both can be shown and there won't be overlap.)
(Idea is that number shows, just in a different color)

Regarding the HUD I'd addiditionally like to have a slight background for the elements in the bottom right corner like for those at the top, because sometimes I find it a bit hard to read the white numbers. Also it would be nice to have a more simpler version of the HUD in the bottom right corner only with the numbers like it is in Train Simulator and without those additional analog style instruments.

pschlik Very nice ideas! Very impressive concept photos too! I had a few more ideas and I just had to copy you and make some photos too:
It'd be nice to have some kind of indication as to what kilometer post the next stop is located at, in particular on German routes where you always have kilometerposts to follow you on your journey. This'd be very helpful for people wanting to play the route without HUD. A concept of how that could be accomplished is in the photo.
Furthermore, I'd like to see the max speed of locos shown in the service selection screen and actual values shown too. I'm not sure if the solution I've come up with is ideal, but it's an concept nonetheless. Honestly, I don't completely understand the ideas of bars without a sensible comparison. Perhaps put a scale on those bars so that we can interpret the values. Something like that, I am not certain of a single best solution.

I’m a bit surprised to see this bumping going on here-this thread is so old that one of my suggestions here has actually ended up in the game (the yellow number on the HUD when braking).

Anyway, I guess I can always edit the original post, and I do like what I’m seeing here. The idea of unique HUDs per loco is certainly possible, and would look cool, but I don’t see DTG doing that since it could take some time to get working. BUT-modding! I would bet that we could make mods for the HUD. After all, DTG has “modded” the HUD of individual trains with things like the ATC lights on the M7, and whatever DTG can do, we can do too!

As an alternative. What if the guage readings came up if you hovered over them with the cursor? That way you could have the simulation view without having to switch options ob and off. Ie I cant quite make out my speed so I place the cursor over the speedometer, ie it would say in reasonably small text 50mph/70 meaning current speed is 50 mph in a limit of 70. Or hover over the brake guage in a hst and it says what notch im in.

I pestered Luke plenty about putting those back into the loading screen rotation...as well as making ones for RSN...and for LIRR...which never happened. So rest in peace to that idea. At least I have copies of the loco details files, but there is no real way to get them other than having a backup.